“People are coming here for music, not necessarily for space,” said Preston Dyches, who works with public engagement at JPL. “We knew when were coming here we wanted to reach out to the local community. It allows us to get a conversation started.”

Sign up for our Festival Pass newsletter. Whether you are a Coachella lifer or prefer to watch from afar, get weekly dispatches during the Southern California music festival season. Subscribe here.

There are three stations, each representing a trip. One featured a cardboard cutout of a spaceman suit on Mars, which hinted at how one day humans may work with rovers and robots that already explore the planet’s rocky surface.

The next station had a mini submarine, which simulated what might go under Europa’s ocean. (Did you know that according to NASA Jupiter’s moon has an ocean that’s 60 miles deep under a layer of ice?)

The final station was the most psychedelic, fitting for any ‘60s and ‘70s rock ‘n’ roll fans at the festival. It imagined what Kepler-186f, an existing planet that NASA says is 550 light years away — too far for human contact — might be like. Pink and red plants were set up to give an idea of how the planet’s surface may appear, since the star it orbits is red.

Dyches said several thousand had circulated through the exhibit in a steady flow. And for whatever reason it may be, whether it was in fact an interest in space or just a way to kill time and beat the afternoon heat, NASA’s JPL team was able to open some eyes during the two-day music festival.